Ryanair became the first and only airline to join Europe’s list of top 10 polluters

The
European Union should abandon the U.N.’s emission offsetting scheme for
airlines and instead should tax aviation
like other means of transportation, according to analysis from
Brussels-based Transport & Environment research group.

Earlier
in April, Ryanair became the first and
only airline to join Europe’s list of top 10 polluters, according to EU
data. The league was made up exclusively of coal-fired power plant until
then. Ryanair joined seven plants in Germany, one in Bulgaria and one in
Poland.

“When it comes to climate, Ryanair is the new coal. This trend
will only continue until Europe realises that this undertaxed and
under-regulated sector needs to be brought into line, starting with a tax on
kerosene and the introduction of mandates that force airlines to switch to
zero-emission jet fuel,” Andrew Murphy, aviation manager at T&E said
in a statement.

Ryanair may be Europe’s most polluting airline, but it is far from being
the fastest-growing emitter of greenhouse gases, according to T&E latest
figures, which cites Britain’s Jet2.com, Portugal’s TAP or Finland’s Finnair with rates of 20%, 12.6% and 11.2%
respectively. Overall,
emissions from the aviation sector rose 4.9% last year, compared to a 3.9% fall
for other emission-trading sectors.

T&E says the problem of “aviation’s runaway emissions”
are the results of governments that left
the sector “untaxed and under-regulated compared to other transport.”

“National carriers and low-cost airlines all benefit from paying no fuel
tax and VAT while the rest of us must pay our way. Governments and the EU need to wake up, starting with a tax on
kerosene and clean fuel mandates that force airlines to switch to zero-emission
jet fuel,” Murphy said.

The debate on how to put a price on emissions from the aviation sector is a heated one; which has landed on the discussion table on the bloc’s finance ministers back in February. At the initiative of the Dutch finance minister, European member states were invited to consider the implementation of a European carbon tax for aviation, which would require unanimity, to bridge the gap between emissions forecasts and the Paris Agreement targets.